An all-system drill simulating the launch of a Chang Zheng-7 (CZ-7, or Long March-7) rocket is currently under way at the newly-built Hainan launch centre. Photos circulating on the Chinese social media show a non-flying CZ-7 drill rocket identical to that used in a real launch standing on the mobile launcher platform (MLP) at Hainan.

On 31 December 2014, a Chang Zheng-3A (CZ-3A) rocket launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in central China placed the Feng Yun 2G meteorology satellite into orbit, making the 16th and final Chinese space launch in 2014. The three-stage CZ-3A lifted off from the Launch Complex 2 in Xichang at 09:02 Beijing Time (01:02 GMT). The satellite was initially placed into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), where it will use its own apogee kick motor (AKM) to move to its position in the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 640,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 27 days for that many people to see it.

A military reconnaissance satellite named Yaogan Weixing 26 was launched atop a Chang Zheng-4B (CZ-4B) launch vehicle on Saturday 27 December. The rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre at 11:22 Beijing Time (03:22 GMT). This is the 26h mission of the Yaogan Weixing family, and the 7th Yaogan Weixing in 2014.

A constellation of three reconnaissance satellites, collectively known as Yaogan Weixing 25, has been successfully launched atop a single Chang Zheng-4C launcher from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Site at 15:33 Beijing Time (07:33 GMT) on 11 December 2014.

China plans to send a probe to orbit Mars and land a rover on Mars surface in a single mission around 2020. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Lei Fanpei, Chairman of the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation (CASC) consortium, confirmed that the initial evaluation of China’s first independent Mars mission had already been completed.

China has successfully launched a remote-sensing satellite named CBERS-4 on Sunday 7 December. The Chang Zheng-4B (CZ-4B) rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from Launch Complex 9 of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre (TSLC) on at 11:26 Beijing Time (03:26 GMT). The mission also marked the 200th flight of the Chinese Chang Zheng (Long March) series launch vehicle.

In her speech for the 27th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers, which is being held in Beijing between 10th and 15th of September, Huang told the congress delegates that the source for future Chinese astronauts would expand from military pilots to include space engineers and medical professionals.

China has conducted two space launches within a time span of five days, placing four satellites into orbit.

On Thursday 4 September, a Chang Zheng-2D (CZ-2D) rocket blasted off from Pad 603 of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (JSLC) at 08:15 local time (00:15 GMT). The main cargo of the rocket was the Chuang Xin 1-04 (CX-1-04) communications satellite developed by China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation. On its piggyback was the Ling Qiao experimental communications satellite developed by Tsinghua University.